Diversified Financial Services

Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway effective immediately at age 96, becoming chairman emeritus while remaining on the board, with Greg Abel now running the company and Howard Buffett becoming chairman. Buffett took control of Berkshire in 1965 and compounded per-share market value at 19.7% annually from 1965 through 2025, versus 10.5% for the S&P 500 with dividends, producing a 6,099,294% cumulative gain against 46,061% for the index. Abel became chief executive in January and has already put Berkshire's cash to work, investing $10 billion in Alphabet's June private placement and accumulating roughly 106 million shares worth $37.8 billion by June 30, making Alphabet Berkshire's third-largest stock holding. Berkshire was a net buyer of stocks in the second quarter, investing $23.5 billion while selling $3.7 billion. Howard Buffett, a Berkshire director since 1993, becomes chairman as a guardian of the company's culture and values, while Abel retains responsibility for major capital-allocation decisions.

Berkshire Hathaway announced Friday that Warren Buffett has been named chairman emeritus, effective immediately. Howard Buffett, a Berkshire director since 1993, succeeds his father in the role, while Susan L. Decker will continue as Lead Independent Director. Buffett will remain a member of the Board of Directors in his new capacity and will continue to offer counsel to the company, Berkshire said in a statement. Buffett stepped down as CEO on January 1st of this year, passing full operational control to Greg Abel while staying on as Chairman of the Board. Under Abel's leadership, Berkshire built a $37 billion stake in Alphabet, Google's parent company, making it a top-five holding.

Equitable Holdings added the industry's first bitcoin-linked investment option to a registered index-linked annuity on September 2, tracking the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF through a new SCS Premier option. The bitcoin option offers one-year segments with buffers of 10%, 15%, 20% and 40%, and allocations are generally capped at 25% of contract value, giving clients defined protection rather than open-ended exposure. The same update added Optimal Mix Segments, which spread money across multiple indices and weight the best performers at maturity, plus Dual Direction Downside Advantage segments that can turn a decline within the buffer into a gain worth twice the size of that drop. The launch sits on top of a business that is already growing: in the second quarter of 2026, Equitable posted net inflows of $1.7 billion in Retirement, $2.0 billion in Wealth Management and $0.8 billion in Asset Management, pushing total assets under management and administration to a record $1.2 trillion, up 10% from a year earlier, while returning $449 million to shareholders and staying on track for a 60% to 70% payout ratio in 2026. The headline growth hides a rockier bottom line, with a GAAP net loss of $453 million, or $1.68 per share, for the second quarter of 2026 even as non-GAAP operating earnings came in positive at $488 million, and book value per common share of negative $6.79 once accumulated other comprehensive income is included. The pending merger with Corebridge Financial, approved by shareholders on July 30, still needs regulatory sign-off before it can close, leaving the promised earnings boost of more than 10% to earnings per share on a run-rate basis by year-end 2028 dependent on approvals still to come.

Warren Buffett told CNBC that markets are in a gambling mood and that prices for many assets will look very silly, while confirming he initiated Berkshire Hathaway's aggressive buying of Alphabet stock, a position now worth about $38 billion and representing roughly 12.6% of its public equity holdings. Buffett said the decision was made by Greg Abel, and when asked why he was comfortable buying Alphabet over other hyperscalers spending heavily on AI-related capital expenditures, he said he did not want to knock the others because they have no choice, adding that in many cases they are playing a game they do not want to play. Bond markets are pricing in default risk for Oracle, with a mid-market credit default swap spread of 192 basis points implying a 3.2% one-year default probability and 14.8% cumulatively over five years, after S&P Global Ratings downgraded Oracle debt from BBB to BBB-, its lowest investment-grade rating, warning that an industry downturn would hit Oracle worse than other hyperscalers. The takeaway is that any significant market-led weakness tied to weaker hyperscalers could be a buying opportunity in higher-quality names like Alphabet.

SBI Holdings announced on the 17th that it will make internet-related company Livedoor a wholly owned subsidiary. It will acquire all of Livedoor's shares from parent company Minkabu The Infonoid for about 7.5 billion yen. SBI Chairman and President Yoshitaka Kitao and Takafumi Horie, who led Livedoor, once clashed in the battle for Nippon Broadcasting System shares, so the two have now come together as a group, transcending their past feud. SBI will strengthen its media business by leveraging Livedoor's assets, including its news sites in Japan and overseas. Minkabu will also form a capital alliance with NTT Data, and the three companies including SBI will consider new services in the financial sector, aiming to become a financial information platformer originating in Japan.

SBI Holdings announced on the 17th that it will make internet-related company Livedoor a wholly owned subsidiary. It will acquire all of Livedoor's shares from parent company Minkabu The Infonoid for about 7.5 billion yen. SBI Chairman and President Yoshitaka Kitao and Takafumi Horie, who led Livedoor, once clashed in the battle for control of Nippon Broadcasting System shares, so the two have now come together as a group, transcending their past feud. SBI will strengthen its media business by leveraging Livedoor's assets, including its news sites in Japan and overseas. Minkabu will form a capital alliance with NTT Data, and the three companies including SBI will consider new services in the financial sector, aiming to become a financial information platformer originating in Japan.

Greg Abel has led Berkshire Hathaway for nearly three full quarters since taking over as CEO from Warren Buffett at the beginning of this year, and the most notable change under his watch is a major bet on Alphabet. Alphabet is now a top-five portfolio position for Berkshire, ranking No. 5, alongside Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Bank of America. Alphabet accounts for roughly 10.5% of Berkshire's stock portfolio between class A and class B shares, a level no other tech stock has ever matched or exceeded except Apple, which accounts for roughly 20.8% of the conglomerate's public holdings. Together, the two tech companies now make up roughly 31% of Berkshire's total stock holdings. Operations at Berkshire's fully owned subsidiaries have seen little change, and there have been no game-changing acquisitions or dramatic shifts in the broader public stock portfolio.

Warren Buffett warned that the stock market has drifted from investing into outright gambling, telling CNBC's Becky Quick at Berkshire Hathaway's 2026 annual meeting in Omaha that the casino side of the market has grown far more attractive to people lately. "I've compared the markets to a church with a casino attached," Buffett said, adding that the shift is "not investing, it's not speculating, it's gambling," and pointing to the explosion in one-day options trading as evidence that "we've never had people in a more gambling mood than now." His caution is backed by Berkshire's own balance sheet, which ended the first quarter of 2026 with a record $397.4 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term Treasury bills, the largest liquidity position in the company's history. Two valuation gauges support his hesitation: the Buffett indicator, comparing total U.S. stock market value to GDP, sat above 234% as of late July, well beyond the 200% level Buffett once described as "playing with fire," while the Shiller CAPE ratio stood above 41.9. Berkshire was a net seller of stocks for 14 consecutive quarters before reversing course in the second quarter of 2026, with most of that renewed buying concentrated in a roughly $17 billion purchase of Alphabet shares. Buffett stressed he is not predicting an imminent crash, noting that Berkshire has weathered three declines of more than 50% since he took over and calling the recent pullback "nothing," a sign the company is waiting for a much bigger decline before deploying substantial capital.

Greg Abel, who succeeded Warren Buffett as Berkshire Hathaway's CEO at the beginning of 2026, has made a major acquisition by buying homebuilder Taylor Morrison and has been buying back many Berkshire Hathaway shares, boosting the value of the remaining shares. Abel has much of the Berkshire Hathaway stock portfolio invested in top holdings Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Alphabet, and Bank of America. Buffett, who built Berkshire Hathaway into a company now worth more than $1 trillion and increased its share price by more than 6,000,000% over 60 years, stepped down from the CEO post at the beginning of 2026 and just turned 96. The company operates as a true conglomerate, owning multiple insurance and energy operations along with GEICO, Benjamin Moore, McLane, NetJets, Dairy Queen International, See's Candies, Fruit of the Loom, Pilot Travel Centers, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, and the entire BNSF railroad.

Berkshire Hathaway agreed to pay $6.8 billion to acquire Taylor Morrison Home, the first major acquisition under new CEO Greg Abel, who took over from Warren Buffett. Abel called it a strategic move, saying he hopes to "unify our site-built homebuilding operations into a combined platform," and Warren Buffett approved his handling of the deal. The purchase comes as the pending home sales index sits near its second-lowest reading ever, down 36% from its 2021 high, but Abel is not trying to time a housing upturn. Berkshire Hathaway held roughly $365 billion in cash at the end of the second quarter of 2026, giving it the patience to let the homebuilding integration play out over years. Taylor Morrison Home is just one piece of a broader effort to strengthen Berkshire's operating businesses.

Greg Abel, who succeeded Warren Buffett as Berkshire Hathaway's chief executive on January 1, 2026, has reversed Buffett's two biggest convictions within six months, turning the company into a net buyer of equities and ramping up buybacks. In the second quarter, Berkshire made nearly $20 billion in net equity purchases, including a $10 billion private placement in Alphabet, and spent $4.5 billion on buybacks, reducing cash reserves by $32 billion to $365.5 billion by June 30, 2026. Buffett told CNBC in a July 2026 interview that he personally drove the decision to build the Alphabet position, saying, "I initiated it. I am not doing anything that he doesn't approve of. He's not doing anything I don't approve of. We talk all the time, but he is the decider." Abel also announced a $6.8 billion acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison at $72.50 per share, a 24% premium, and personally purchased 21 Class A shares at approximately $730,000 each, committing to repeat the purchase annually. Operating earnings rose 16% year over year to $12.98 billion, while net income more than doubled to $25.67 billion, and shares climbed as much as 3.3% following the results. Critics like Michael Burry expressed concern about the pace of spending, but others, including Bill Stone of The Glenview Trust Company, defended Abel's actions as disciplined capital deployment.

Greg Abel, Warren Buffett's successor as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, spent $4.5 billion repurchasing company stock last quarter and has already bought at least $3.3 billion more in July, signaling confidence in the stock's value. The buybacks mark a significant step-up from the first quarter, when repurchases totaled only a few hundred million dollars, and follow a six-quarter pause under Buffett. Berkshire's quarterly report shows shares outstanding fell about 0.32% from the end of June to the end of July, with the company's market capitalization above $1.05 trillion. Abel also ended a 13-quarter streak of net stock sales by buying $23.5 billion in equities last quarter, including a large position in Alphabet, which is now Berkshire's third-largest holding. The repurchases are permitted only when management deems the stock undervalued, and with a price-to-book ratio around 1.45, the stock appears fairly valued despite recent gains.

Corpay shares have gained 5.4% since its second-quarter earnings report, outperforming the S&P 500. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $7, up 36% year over year and beating estimates by 6.1%, while revenues rose 21% to $1.34 billion, also surpassing expectations. Growth was driven by a 42% jump in Corporate Payments revenues to $548.7 million, which now account for 41% of total revenue, and a 13% increase in Vehicle Payments to $580.2 million, the largest segment. Adjusted EBITDA grew 24% to $767.2 million with margin expansion to 57.3%, despite a $100 million charge related to an FTC settlement. Corpay raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $5.29-$5.33 billion and adjusted earnings to $27.15-$27.55 per share, and refinanced its credit facilities to improve financial flexibility.

Berkshire Hathaway's new CEO Greg Abel said in a CNBC interview that energy will be the biggest constraint on AI data centers, citing grid permitting and interconnection delays rather than chip shortages. Abel noted data centers already represent roughly 8% of Berkshire Energy's load in Iowa, with incremental load expected. He also revealed that Berkshire invested $6.5 billion in Alphabet at a 6.5% discount as part of a roughly $23.5 billion equity deployment in Q2, driven by conviction in AI's impact. Berkshire Energy will serve hyperscalers only if existing ratepayers face no rate increase and ideally see a net benefit. Abel's comments highlight the growing importance of utilities and power infrastructure in the AI boom.

Berkshire Hathaway Chief Executive Greg Abel said Wednesday that the company sees opportunities for its energy business from the expansion of AI data centers, following the conglomerate's $10 billion additional investment in Alphabet three months ago. Abel told CNBC that he and Chairman Warren Buffett authorized the new investment in Google's parent company, which has become Berkshire's third-largest common stock holding, describing Google as a "significant player" in AI. Abel said he executed the recent $10 billion purchase at a 6.5% discount to Alphabet's stock price. He noted that in Iowa, where Berkshire Hathaway Energy operates, approximately 8% of its load came from data centers last year, and he has always held the strong view that energy would be the constraint, but it remains a significant opportunity for Berkshire and Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

Berkshire Hathaway repurchased $4.5 billion of its own stock in the second quarter, its largest buyback since 2021 and a signal that new CEO Greg Abel sees the shares as undervalued. The buyback, which reduced outstanding shares by less than half a percent, came as Berkshire also invested heavily in other stocks, distinguishing it from recent quarters when buybacks were a default use of cash. With a record $397.4 billion in cash and Treasuries at the start of the quarter, Abel has been seeking ways to deploy capital. While the buyback is aggressive by Berkshire's standards, it is not a dramatic declaration, but it does suggest that Abel and Chairman Warren Buffett believe the stock is cheap relative to its intrinsic value. Investors should do their own analysis, but the buyback offers a reason to examine Berkshire's current valuation.

A legal arbitrator has ruled that cryptocurrency exchange Gemini cannot be held liable for the collapse of its Earn lending program, finding that the company, led by twin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, did not mislead users and was not at fault. The claim, filed by investors in 2024, was dismissed due to insufficient evidence of wrongdoing. The arbitrator attributed the program's failure largely to "massive fraud" by Genesis, Gemini's partner, which last year paid a $38.5 million fine to the SEC. Launched in 2021, Earn offered up to 7.4% annual interest, but withdrawals were halted in 2022, affecting over 300,000 users. Gemini has since repaid $2.18 billion in digital assets, covering 97% of what was owed, and its stock now trades at $4.30, down 87% from its IPO a year ago.